Chapter Twenty-Two #2
Scarlet helps me to stand, and I have a moment, like an out-of-body experience, where I’m grateful Mateo apparently fixed my clothes because otherwise the embarrassment I thought I had been feeling would be laughable in comparison.
By the time I can shake the sensation, we’re already in the hall, and another vampire I recognize, having met but whose name I’ve forgotten, is lingering by the stairs.
We all make our way to a smaller sitting room, one less impacted by the recent house bombing, and Scarlet pulls me down to sit with her on the large sofa.
Lily sweeps in seconds later with a tray and three steaming mugs. “I made tea.” She offers me a smile.
I force one in return. I may have to talk to Mateo about building a separate home on the property, or finding a way for me to survive without ever sleeping again, because this is humiliating. Except I wasn’t even asleep.
I accept the drink, inhale the herbal aroma, and set it on my lap.
Lily, Scarlet, Kyson, and the other guy are the only ones in the room currently, but that’s actually preferable.
“If ... if we’re going to live together,” I begin, having no idea how to tell this many near-strangers and also knowing I should, “there’s something about me you should know. ”
Lily makes a humming noise. “Let me guess,” she says as she moves to plop herself into a single, wing-backed chair. “You have a strange, unique ability you don’t know how to talk about?” She raises both brows as she proceeds to blow into her tea.
I blink, and my mouth opens, but a moment passes before I manage, “Do—do you also—”
Scarlet bumps my arm with her elbow. “Yours can’t be worse than mine.”
I twist my neck to gape at the redhead. It’s not even fair that she’s beautiful and a total badass and apparently has an ability of her own. I can’t imagine what her gift could be that she detests it as much as her words suggest.
Kyson rumbles as if he might be chuckling. “It’s not all that bad, Red.”
Scarlet turns enough to narrow her eyes up at him, as he’s leaning against the wall on her side of the sofa. “You’re the only one who thinks so.”
I clearly see him raise a brow in challenge. “Am I?” he asks.
“Okay, you two,” Lily cuts in. “Save the flirting for later. Harlow was trying to tell us something.”
Everyone shifts their attention back to me, and I draw a deep breath.
Mateo’s not about to rush into the room.
I can tell he’s too far away. And Lily’s right.
I started this. So I sip at my tea and hold tightly to the sense of the bond he and I have forged, hoping it somehow extends in some psychological way over the rest of his coven, and I speak.
“Ever since I can remember, I’ve been able to see ghosts. Some are stronger than others. Some are clearer, but they’re ... everywhere, practically. When I was young, I didn’t know how to talk about it. It scared me. And hearing the things I said scared my parents, so I ended up in an institution.”
Scarlet sucks in a sharp breath and moves her hand to my shoulder. I think it was meant as a gesture of comfort, but it almost feels more like she’s holding on to me to keep me from disappearing, which is crazy. But I like that better, honestly, so I pause to offer her a small smile.
Then I resume what I feel compelled to say.
They don’t need every detail—or the details as I think I know them.
“It was horror-movie bad, basically, and I don’t like talking about it.
But I escaped eventually, and that experience taught me not to talk about the dead.
I learned the smarter places not to go so I could lower my odds of seeing them.
I taught myself to hold in my reactions, no matter how grotesque or obnoxious or startling a ghost might be. ”
Lily sets her tea aside as if she’s lost interest in it, never taking her eyes from me.
“Mateo ... is the first person, ever, just to believe me,” I confess, my voice dropping briefly to a whisper. “I get it, of course. But it’s still...”
Scarlet squeezes my shoulder hard. “We believe you.”
Lily nods earnestly.
Even the other guy—who I’m feeling really guilty about—nods, a more somber expression on his face.
Kyson folds his arms across his chest. “Of course, Mateo believed you. All consorts have gifts.”
My eyes widen again.
Scarlet’s hand falls away, and she shrugs, laughing, as she says, “I actually didn’t realize I was seeing into other people’s dreams until Kyson laid it out for me. Very crudely, I will add.”
“If you’d been less stubborn, I could have been more polite about it.”
Another look passes between them, and this time I catch it. The banter is flirtatious with them. It’s part of their thing. And it’s weirdly cute. Part of me wants to linger in the energy they effortlessly bring.
But I haven’t gotten to my true point yet, as much as everyone’s immediate belief has reassured me. Which is when I fully process what Kyson said and blurt, “We all have them?”
“Yes,” Lily responds, smiling. “I can’t explain it fully, but it’s a sign of old lineage that strengthens us and supposedly prepares us even before we’ve bonded. Or something.”
I drop my gaze to the tea I’m still holding and think over her words.
I don’t know about preparing, but there’s an argument to be made about the strengthening, for sure.
Either way, the more they talk, the more I think my latest half-theory isn’t so wild.
So I take a breath and look around the room, opting to be brave and settle on Kyson.
“Do these ... gifts connect us in some stronger, more direct way to our mate once we’ve bonded? ”
His brow pinches in a more familiar, suspicious way, but he inclines his head. “Yes.” He doesn’t elaborate, and I don’t ask him to.
I don’t need him to. I swallow. “I think I was seeing a variation of what Mateo was seeing out there tonight.” I barely whisper the words, but the vampires hear me fine. As does Scarlet, who’s glued to my side.
She repeats it for Lily, who asks the most logical question. “But I thought you saw ghosts?” Her tone isn’t demeaning or even skeptical. It’s raw confusion at its finest, and I decide she can be my second-best friend for that alone.
I lick my lips and nod. “A variation,” I repeat, “because I thought I saw him at a church. A very old, decrepit church. And then he changed location, and my sight got much clearer. He was at a graveyard. I couldn’t identify who was with him.
I only recognized the graveyard and all the ...
dozens of spirits that were drawn to that figure like some sort of soul-sucking magnet.
” I shiver as I say the words and clasp both hands around the mug for what warmth it will offer.
Scarlet rubs my shoulder. “Okay. You win. And I’m really sorry for that.”
A snort bursts from me at the unexpected response, and it’s like the tension in the air evaporates with my exhale. I give her an honest smile.
Then Kyson speaks, his tone hard. “They did go to an old church, outside of town. Churches like that usually had private graveyards.”
My lungs freeze for a long second. So all of that ... was real. Which means Joan was real. The ghost of her, and the memory I somehow forgot.
“One more question,” I say, even managing not to whisper. Something in my voice must catch their attention, because Scarlet drops her arm and sits up like she’s at attention. “Have you ever heard of or known someone powerful enough to erase memories?”